Beloved icon of Windows history appears to be in the rear view for good

For those upset about the lack of a start button in Windows 8, prepare yourself for another disappointment -- "Windows Blue", an upcoming short-cycle successor to Windows 8, is not expected to bring the feature back.

The source of this supposed leak is CNBeta, a site with close insider ties at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which gained respect by accurately leaking a number of early Windows 8 details.

Other info from the site includes suggests that Microsoft will further flatten the UI on the desktop (think the Metro/Windows 8 UI style), the taskbar/desktop will get tweaks, the price will be low (or free), and the new kernel version number will be v6.3 (corroborated by other independent reports). The final remnants of the Aero UI, which was a staple of Windows Vista and Windows 7 is also being bid adieu, like the Start button before it.

The start button went the way of the Dodo with Windows 8. [Image Source: Jason Mick/DailyTech]

Neowinreports that a summer launch of Windows Blue is expected. And its contacts close to Microsoft hint that the name will be some sort of riff on Windows 8, not Windows 9, as some suspected.

(For the record you can get a Start Menu-like menu by moving your mouse to the lower left corner of the screen and right-clicking. Voilà, magic!)

Yeah, there's that. Switching between Modern and Desktop is a bit jarring. I personally don't have problem with that, but I can see people not liking it. Since I don't, I like additional functionality of Start screen over Start menu. I'm using Hotmail (and SkyDrive) as it syncs well over iPhone, Transformer and my Windows PCs... so I like capability to see if there are new emails, calendar events etc. on Mail/Calendar tiles before opening Outlook. Start Screen is also more customizable than Win 7 Start menu. Outside of that, majority of my apps are desktop apps, so I'm spending most of time on desktop anyway. Only Modern apps I'm using are small info apps like NZ Herald etc., which I check on occasion.

I'm working for small IT company and we have moved majority of our desktops and laptops to 8, on voluntary base; Windows 8 was made available to staff, but not required. Most moved, and majority is happy with it. Minority share your feeling about Start screen, but can live with it. All that said, I have no illusions that 8 would be as well accepted among our customers, most of which we have managed to move to 7 within last two years. Some are still longing for XP and Office 2003. Everyday users don't like changes which in understandable - computer is just a tool they use to do their job, and less changes they have to learn and adapt to, less problems they have in doing their actual jobs. We have a few Win 8 machines among small users (retail purchases), but not more than that.